Trump campaign says it was hacked and blames hostile “foreign source”.

So far, Politico has not been able to identify the person behind the email account or the individual’s reasoning for sending the materials to the outlet.

The Trump campaign, in a statement to BI, did not provide direct evidence to support the claim of Iranian involvement in the breach, but pointed to a recent Microsoft report referencing Iranian hackers who sent a “phishing email” to a campaign presidential in June.

“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States, designed to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to Business Insider. “On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers breached the account of a ‘senior official’ in the June 2024 US presidential campaign, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee” .

Cheung did not disclose to Business Insider whether the campaign contacted Microsoft or law enforcement officials.

What the Microsoft report said

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, but in its assessment report it found that groups linked to the Iranian government had laid the groundwork to “stir controversy or influence voters,” particularly in key states in change.

The report said an Iranian group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a phishing email to a top campaign official in June that originated from the “compromised” email account of a former aide.

The report did not identify the presidential campaign that was targeted.

“The email contained a link that would route traffic through a domain controlled by the group before being directed to the website of the link provided. Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate,” the report said.

Emails from an AOL account

In late June, a user who goes by the name “Robert” began sending emails to Politico from an AOL account with what appeared to be internal documents from a top Trump staffer.

Two people verified with Politico that the documents — which were from late February — were authentic. A person familiar with the matter told the publication that the Vance case was an early step in the Ohioan’s examination of the case. Some of Vance’s public criticisms of Trump prior to the senator’s political career were labeled as “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES” in the filing, according to Politico.

“Robert” also sent a portion of the documents that included information about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump also considered a running mate.